Endless conveyor belts have been widely used to transport a number of different objects from one location to another. For example, endless conveyor belts have been used in the food processing industry to transport food products such as poultry, seafood, vegetables, cookies, crackers, bagels, tortillas and red meat. Typical food processes in which endless conveyor belts have been used include breading, battering, forming, frying, cooking, coating and baking. Endless conveyor belts have also been used in the food service industry to transport food products such as pizza, seafood, lunchmeat and toast. Endless conveyor belts can be found in this industry in impingement ovens in retail outlets, retail toasters and meat slicing systems to name a few. Further, endless conveyor belts have been used to transport confectionary food products including chocolate coatings and sugar coatings. Endless conveyor belts have also been used in the automotive industry, textile industry and electronics industry to transport various objects from one location to another.
One prior art endless conveyor belt that has been used in a wide variety of applications is the FLEXX FLOW endless belt manufactured by Lumsden Flexx Flow, Inc. While the FLEXX FLOW endless conveyor belt has been widely accepted by a number of different industries, it has some drawbacks as explained in detail hereinafter. The FLEXX FLOW endless conveyor belt includes a plurality of interconnected wire segments that form a conveying surface to transport various objects from one location to another. The conveying surface has first and second outermost edges. These outermost edges are not continuous. Rather, a gap or space is formed between the ends of a wire segment and the end regions of an interconnected wire segment as viewed from the plan view perspective. These gaps or spaces enhance the chances of the conveyor belt snagging on itself or other articles including but not limited to other conveyor belts. Snagging is undesirable as it can result in damage to the conveyor belt or other articles. Further, snagging can cause unnecessary delay in assembling the belt. Further, these spaces or gaps readily expose any burrs or jagged edges on the ends of the wire segments thereby increasing the likelihood of injury when the belt is assembled or operated. An example of this type of conveyor belt, i.e., a non-continuous edge type conveyor belt is disclosed in FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,998.
Further prior art conveyor belts are disclosed in FIGS. 2 through 6 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,998. These conveyor belts have significant disadvantages. Specifically, these conveyor belts are all designed such that the ends of the wire strands are formed after interlocking. These designs lead to unnecessary delays in assembling the conveyor belt. Further, the conveyor belt can become damaged or weakened during this process.